The SAF Challenge

[Joe.]

End Of Season Update - 2016/17

Premier League - I would've taken 9th place at the start of the season although results from February onwards had me dropping down from 4th position.

Domestic Cups - 3rd and 4th rounds of each competition was disappointing once more. Knocked out by Premier League opposition both times.

Transfers - A mixed bag of signings to go alongside a HUGE amount of departures. Ospina and Cheryshev standing out as great signings for the club. It was no coincidence that Ospina's broken leg in March coincided with my appalling run of form.

Young Players

I was lucky enough to receive some decent little players in my youth intake...

Glenn Waters will be my DM rock for years to come. Made his debut towards the end of the season and took it like a duck to water.

Callum Ball also made his debut late in the season, but needs to strengthen up a bit before he'll be rotated into the squad. Plenty of potential though, so hopefully he'll develop nicely.

George Mensah I've included here because he's Ghanaian, just like my manager. I also signed a couple of Ghanaian staff members as well as players (Boateng & Ayew). I wonder if this is just a coincidence?

Targets for next season;

There's not a lot of deadwood to shift anymore, so now I need strength in depth. I struggled when key players got injured, so I need to ensure that I have at least 2 decent options for each position whilst also treating some of the youngsters to first team action. Another top half finish would be great, but I really want to be aiming towards Europe and a decent run in the cup.

Season	Team		FA Cup		League Cup	Continental	League Position          
15/16	Watford		3rd Round	N/A		N/A		16th
16/17	Watford		4th Round	3rd Round	N/A		9th

Challenge Progress

Domestic

0/13 Premier League titles

0/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 UEFA Cup wins

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/1 World Club Championship

[smp20]

Nice season Joe. - shame about the dip in form towards the end.

In terms of my save, and with heavy heart, I think I am going to restart this. I feel as though my achievements have been tainted by breaching the 8 player signing rule last season and in my current season I went over the £62m spend on players, albeit by accident due to fees going up due to player appearance clauses (£64m spend in total). I also felt as though success came a little too early. I feel that my transfers are justifiable within the challenge, but it's niggling on my mind.

I have decided I will restart again, but this time I will be focusing purely on developing the next ''Class of 92'' - I will not be signing any players at all and rely on the youth academy. I'm not sure who I will get yet, but I hope it is a side that starts with a half decent youth setup.

[Joe.]

Nice season Joe. - shame about the dip in form towards the end.

In terms of my save, and with heavy heart, I think I am going to restart this. I feel as though my achievements have been tainted by breaching the 8 player signing rule last season and in my current season I went over the £62m spend on players, albeit by accident due to fees going up due to player appearance clauses (£64m spend in total). I also felt as though success came a little too early. I feel that my transfers are justifiable within the challenge, but it's niggling on my mind.

I have decided I will restart again, but this time I will be focusing purely on developing the next ''Class of 92'' - I will not be signing any players at all and rely on the youth academy. I'm not sure who I will get yet, but I hope it is a side that starts with a half decent youth setup.

Nice. Good luck with that! Might do something similar myself after this save runs it's course..

[smp20]

Nice. Good luck with that! Might do something similar myself after this save runs it's course..

Cheers Joe. first post to come.

[smp20]

You'll Never Win Anything With Kids!



League Table ~ Manager Profile ~ Club Facilities

So here I am with take two on the challenge and I'm taking a different approach. I've opted for Stoke, and my aim is to turn them into the "Academy of Football". Their most notable academy product, Andy Wilkinson, recently retired due to injury so it is a fitting tribute to the fan favourite. In a slight change to my previous post, I am going to allow myself to sign U18 British players, to develop them to become home grown at the club. We have decent facilities, but I will need to develop the youth setup as soon as possible to have a hope of bringing through quality youngsters from our own academy. The key players in the squad are:



Shaqiri ~ Shawcross ~ Diouf ~ Butland

My own personal aim is to win the Premier League with a fully home-grown at the club squad.

[Joe.]

End Of Season Update - 2017/18

Season Report

A poor season, with only a couple of positives to mention really. My squad is now predominantly British, and I was lucky enough to receive a new contract mid-season keeping me with the club for a further 3 years. On the whole, this was a long season that felt like a struggle. I changed my tactics from January onwards which tightened up my defence a little, but still not to any brilliant standards.

Premier League - A huge step back.

Domestic Cups - A disappointing lack of progress here too.. I rotated my squad a little, but should've still been comfortable against Chesterfield.

Transfers - Really happy with my work in the transfer market. Vardy and Cahill were brought in at the start of January when I was really struggling. They certainly helped me pull away from the relegation zone. Ward-Prowse, Wisdom, Ibe and Loftus-Cheek proved to be first team regulars with only Flanagan really disappointing. Zivkovic leaving for £52m (rising to £61m) was inevitable, and I shifted Juan Jesus as I thought he was to blame for a few silly goals during the season.

Young Players

No screenshots here, but it's worth noting that Glenn Waters notched up a very impressive 20 first team appearances at the age of 17 - he'll be a first team regular in this coming season. Callum Ball's season was unfortunately disrupted by injury, but there are a few teenagers now knocking on the door and I may be happy to put some into the squad as back up players.

Targets for next season

Improve drastically. I don't want to sign too many players this time round, so I'm hoping my team can gel a bit more and progress. I've changed my tactics in order to concede less, and hope that I can be looking towards the top half of the table again. Cup wise, this is my final chance to win a domestic cup within the 4 years! Quite frankly I'd be happy with quarter finals.

Season	Team		FA Cup		League Cup	Continental	League Position          
15/16	Watford		3rd Round	N/A		N/A		16th
16/17	Watford		4th Round	3rd Round	N/A		9th
17/18	Watford		3rd Round	2nd Round	N/A		17th

Challenge Progress

Domestic

0/13 Premier League titles

0/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 UEFA Cup wins

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/1 World Club Championship

[smp20]

That's not a good season Joe, do you think that teams changed their approach against you after last season? Onwards and upwards I say. My first season update is about to come and I'm not saying anything at the moment. I hope you don't mind Joe but I'm going to steal your layout, its excellent for this challenge

[smp20]

Stoke City F.C. - 2015/16 Season Update

Season Report

Ultimately a disappointing season culminating in my first relegation on FM16. We got off to a good start under my management picking up 7 wins out of our first 10 games including victories over Chelsea and Man City, but our form after that was catastrophic. I managed to keep my job (so far), thanks to our fine performance in the FA Cup.

Premier League - terrible. Our final game was at home to rivals West Brom and we lost 1-0 which allowed them to leapfrog us as we went down on goal difference. It was a very tense final day!

FA Cup - an incredible run where we ending up winning it! We faced tough teams like Spurs and Newcastle en route to the final, where there was a re-match of the 2011 final vs Man City. Arnautovic scored the only goal of the game to give the Stoke fans some joy for the season and keeping me in a job (Pellegrini was less fortunate). We managed to win the FA Cup without conceding!

Transfers - I dipped into the Championship and League 1 to tie up some good young English players, the only exception being Joe Gomez who surprisingly joined us from Liverpool - he must have wanted more first team action. Lewis Cook was the standout signing even being voted as runner up for player of the season behind shining star Shaqiri. The rest of the signings featured mostly in the U21s. In terms of outgoings, I sold off as many fringe players that didn't really fit my way of playing as I could.

Young Players

Getting the youth intake news item is always a very exciting time, and it's even more exciting when a player is touted 'the best of his generation'. Meet Peter Arnett, he looks like he could become a born-and-bred Stoke legend. I've managed to get some regens from other clubs as well who will arrive in the summer, more about them to come.

Targets for Next Season

Of course most crucially it is to gain promotion back to the Premier League. However, I reckon I will be getting rid of a lot of the first team squad and I may even lose some key players, so I will be relying on our young prospects to shine in the Championship. I will not be setting any targets in Europe or the Cups, these will just be further opportunities for the youngsters to develop.

Season	Team		FA Cup		League Cup	Continental	League Position          
15/16	Stoke		Winners	            N/A		N/A		18th (Relegated)

Challenge Progress

Domestic

0/13 Premier League titles

0/10 Community Shield wins

1/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 UEFA Cup wins

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/1 World Club Championship

[TheEarl]

Good FA-Cup run smp20 I might fancy this challenge myself to take a short break from Ultimate Football Manager Challenge, but I will struggle to find a team that I like in 19th position in November.

[smp20]

Looks like we will be off to Bramall Lane for a season, didn't expect such a big expansion when we've just been relegated!

[smp20]

Good FA-Cup run smp20 I might fancy this challenge myself to take a short break from Ultimate Football Manager Challenge, but I will struggle to find a team that I like in 19th position in November.

Cheers, just a shame about our abysmal league form! What team(s) would you fancy?

[TheEarl]

Cheers, just a shame about our abysmal league form! What team(s) would you fancy?

Well on one holiday save I tried Liverpool was 15th and West Ham 18th on the actual date, but teams like Southampton or Newcastle like others got here would be nice also. So far the only options I came up with are Sunderland, Bournemouth or Watford , dont fancy any of them.

[smp20]

Southampton / Newcastle would be nice, it can take a few re-loads though!

[smp20]

Look at this bid! I wasn't planning to let him go, but £60m is a lot of money and I'm sure Shaqiri would kick up a fuss if I didn't let him go.

[Joe.]

That's not a good season Joe, do you think that teams changed their approach against you after last season? Onwards and upwards I say. My first season update is about to come and I'm not saying anything at the moment. I hope you don't mind Joe but I'm going to steal your layout, its excellent for this challenge

I think my initial tactic was maybe a bit too basic, and it wasn't too long until I noticed a lot of teams were playing the same sort of formation against me which totally dominated my midfield.

Aha absolutely steal the layout, I pretty much stole it myself from dafuge's posts.

Awesome run in the cup for you, shame about a last day relegation! But as you say, it'll be a good opportunity to blood some youngsters and hopefully boost a bit of morale... and no, you can't possibly refuse £69m!

[JoeLapira]

Started this the other night and have been tipping away ever since. Here's how the league looked on November 6th:

http://i63.tinypic.com/2q3xb3l.jpg

I was delighted to get West Ham and after 23 games we now sit in 9th. We're also still in the FA Cup and the Europa League. I let Jelavic out on loan and Carroll and Valencia are consistently getting injured so I signed Shane Long for 2 million to bolster the attack. I don't intend on making anymore January signings and will be looking to invest in youth as the Challenge progresses. Will do a full report at the end of the season.

[smp20]

I think my initial tactic was maybe a bit too basic, and it wasn't too long until I noticed a lot of teams were playing the same sort of formation against me which totally dominated my midfield.

Aha absolutely steal the layout, I pretty much stole it myself from dafuge's posts.

Awesome run in the cup for you, shame about a last day relegation! But as you say, it'll be a good opportunity to blood some youngsters and hopefully boost a bit of morale... and no, you can't possibly refuse £69m!

Ah, hopefully you can push on with your new tactic next season. Yeah that is ridiculous money, i ended up selling most of the team so it will be time for the youngsters regardless!

Started this the other night and have been tipping away ever since. Here's how the league looked on November 6th:

http://i63.tinypic.com/2q3xb3l.jpg

I was delighted to get West Ham and after 23 games we now sit in 9th. We're also still in the FA Cup and the Europa League. I let Jelavic out on loan and Carroll and Valencia are consistently getting injured so I signed Shane Long for 2 million to bolster the attack. I don't intend on making anymore January signings and will be looking to invest in youth as the Challenge progresses. Will do a full report at the end of the season.

Welcome to the challenge JoeLapira, West Ham are a nice team to start with and 9th after 23 games is excellent

[JoeLapira]

Cheers for the welcome smp20, ya we've had a great run since I took over losing only once in the league and that was to Man United. Just so I'm clear on the rules, is it just 8 signings a season or is just 8 senior players with u18s not counting.

[smp20]

Cheers for the welcome smp20, ya we've had a great run since I took over losing only once in the league and that was to Man United. Just so I'm clear on the rules, is it just 8 signings a season or is just 8 senior players with u18s not counting.

You've done very well then! On my Norwich save I ended up signing 12 players, 4 U18 and it didnt feel right afterwards hence starting again.

I think so that nobody can misinterpret the rules, 8 signing full stop with a max value of 62m would be how I view it now.

Im sticking to the 8 signings and 62m despite limiting myself to signing u18 British players only, but that's my own quirky rule

[Joe.]

I'm 5 games into my new season and have already played Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs. Needless to say, I'm bottom of the pile...

[smp20]

I'm 5 games into my new season and have already played Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs. Needless to say, I'm bottom of the pile...

Unlucky Joe, thats the last thing you needed! Ive nearly finished my 2nd season, not giving any spoilers yet

[smp20]

Oh wow, just seen there's a new patch. I hope my tactic still works!

[NormandyWept]

Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge - Newcastle United - 2017/18

Transfers | Details

The pre-arranged departure of Ayoze was added to by the exit of Sissoko to Arsenal in another big-money move, but I'd played myself into something of a corner by using too many of the eight transfers allowed under challenge rules to revamp our rotational/squad players, leaving me without much room for manoeuvre. I spent much of the season sitting on an £88m transfer kitty and £140m balance, leaving me very popular with Mike Ashley but somewhat frustrated with a lack of progress on the pitch.

The result is that this year was more of a gradual evolution of the squad than an outright revolution. Joshua Emmanuel and Ben Pearson were good backups, Denisov and Ighalo were decent (if somewhat less extravagant) replacements for Sissoko and Ayoze, and Ryan Bertrand gave us a nice upgrade at left back. The only real star signings were Will Keane - very surprisingly our top scorer having been signed as third-choice striker - and Cedric Bakambu, who only arrived in January and spent two months injured but looked a very nice addition in limited playing time.

However, the squad is in now very decent shape. A further squad player move is planned at full back with Haidara agitating for a move, but for the most part we can afford to focus most of our efforts and limited number of signings on direct first team improvement this coming summer.

Season Performance | Competitions | Schedule Part 1 & Part 2 | Awards

With so many new players to integrate, perhaps also changing to a 4-4-2 formation was quite a risky move: especially with fixtures against Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal to open the season. We duly lost all three, setting up a disastrous start to the season. We stablised in the middle of the campaign, but never really looked like pushing properly into the top half and finished only two places inside it. The league campaign then ended on a positive note, an eight-game unbeaten run including back-to-back 1-0 wins over the two Manchester clubs giving lots of hope for next season and suggesting I may have finally found the right balance to a 4-4-2 in games against the bigger teams. Overall, disappointing not to progress in the league but we did change our squad a lot this year and I must remember that this is the first time in quite a while that Newcastle has achieved consecutive top-half finishes.

The League Cup saw our weakened team again knocked out early: perhaps I can change policy in a coming season, although it seemed too risky this year coming on the back of our brutal start. The FA Cup looks a similar story at first glance, although we were bitterly unlucky - not only were we drawn against Manchester City, but we battered them in the home game, extremely unfortunate to come away with only a draw and give them the chance to kill us off at the Etihad.

Next Season

Going by the original challenge rules, I must win a domestic cup next year. That would be quite some step up, so it's just as well I'm playing by some slightly different rules and just targeting (eventually, once I finally get to it!) a bucketload of silverware to match Sir Alex. I will of course still play a strong team in the FA Cup in particular, but the main focus must be on the league, and improving our showing to perhaps finally threaten the European places?

Challenge Progress

Domestic

0/13 Premier League titles

0/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 Europa League wins*

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/1 World Club Championship

* - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy.

Seasons

Season    League    FA Cup    Lg Cup    Europe    CWC     Other & Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16     12        R4                                  Took over after 11 games, in 19th
2016/17      7        R4        R2
2017/18      9        R3        R2

 

[smp20]

I was getting ready to post my season update then this happened, after a very successful season. Lost for words....as if Florentino Perez wasn't dislike-able enough!!!!!!!!

[NormandyWept]

I was getting ready to post my season update then this happened, after a very successful season. Lost for words....as if Florentino Perez wasn't dislike-able enough!!!!!!!!

Presumably Perez has been ousted from Madrid and, having heard tales of "Stokealona", has arrived to try and sabotage them? That is completely ridiculous. Europa League winners from the second flight? Should have freedom of the city, not the sack!

[smp20]

Presumably Perez has been ousted from Madrid and, having heard tales of "Stokealona", has arrived to try and sabotage them? That is completely ridiculous. Europa League winners from the second flight? Should have freedom of the city, not the sack!

I've never been so gutted on any FM save. I had built a wonderful young side who had broken records (107 points) and as you can see the Europa League. What a *insert insult* Florentino Perez is. I had spent ages gathering together the screenshots ready for a huge update...all out the window!

[Joe.]

Ah man, that's harsh! Especially after Europa League success and a Championship title.. This game can be a right b*stard at times.

[brettney1980]

"My greatest challenge is not what is happening right at this moment, my greatest challenge is knocking Liverpool right off their [insert swear word] perch. And you can print that." - Brettney Joven November 6th 2015

[Joe.]

Good luck with Everton - on my save Lukaku (at Man Utd) destroys me every time I play against him!

I was getting a little tired of this challenge having struggled for success at the start of season 3, so distracted myself with another save.. But I played a bit this morning and managed to get a few points together for Watford so I'm back in the game.

[Joe.]

Watford sack Sausage

Admittedly, I deserved it. I never recovered from a poor start to the season, and only poked my head out of the relegation zone a couple of times through the season. 2 of my final 3 games were against Crystal Palace (20th) and Leicester (17th) and a win in either of those would've put my in a strong position, but I drew one and lost one and rightly went down.

It's a shame, really. I had some really decent young players coming through and would've quite liked to take charge of them in the Championship. I'd also managed my best cup run, reaching round 6 of the FA cup. Never mind.

Good luck with those still in the challenge, I'm gonna attempt something different

[Joe.]

Good luck with those still in the challenge, I'm gonna attempt something different

I lied. I'm giving this another crack.. I don't have a particular club in mind, but there are also a few teams I'd rather avoid. I don't want to do Watford again, and wouldn't be particularly keen on Sunderland or WBA.

I shall update y'all before too long.

[brettney1980]

Good luck with Take 2 Joe. It's a shame Watford didn't work to well but it will be interesting to see who you go with.

[ChefRobGaming]

Season 1 Update

Transfers In

Kristoffer Ajer for 1.5m

Callum Paterson for 7m over 48months

Cristian Pavon 9.5m

Kelvin Davis free

Liam Ridgewell free

and loaned in Ryan Mason from spurs

Transfers Out

Max Gradel to Watford 10.25m

Adam Federici to Fulham 1.2m

managed to finish 14th first season in which stoke, leicester and newcastle got relegated

Season 2 Update

Transfers In

Youri Tielemans 8m

Bryan Heynen 2.2m

Lincoln 6m

Ryan Tunnicliffe 2m

John Swift free

Tom Carroll free

Nicola Leali free

Transfers Out

Dan Gosling to burnley 1m

Tommy Elphick to hearts 700k

Steve Cook to stoke 2.7m

Charlie Daniels to fulham 850k

Andrew Surman to sheff wed 325k

Lee Tomlin to huddersfield 250k

Adam Smith to leicester 575k

Cristian Pavon to Bayern 29.5m release clause he was amazing but couldnt stop him leaving

managed to finish 3rd and got into the cl groups

Season 3 Update

Transfers In

Will Hughes 13m way too much imo but needed english players for europe

Yoann Gourcuff free

Wes Foderingham 1.9m

Joe Flanagan 2.6m

Kortney Hause 7.5m over 48months

Javier Hernandez 12.5m

Marcus Rashford 850k

Transfers Out

Joshua King to birmingham 850k

Harry Arter to man city 4m

Ryan Fraser to stoke 2m

Simon Francis to middlesbrough 825k

Liam Ridgewell to burnley 500k

Ryan Allsop to bolton free

also freed alot of deadwood

2 games left and i sit 3rd again Arsenal lead by 7 and Man Utd sit 2nd atm 2points ahead of me, then next 5 teams all on 70 points

into the europa league semi final against marseille

[brettney1980]

SAF Challenge - Season 1 - 2015/16 - Everton;

"My greatest challenge is not what is happening right at this moment, my greatest challenge is knocking Liverpool right off their [insert swear word] perch. And you can print that." - Brettney Joven November 6th 2015

The Squad|Transfers|League Table|League Graph|Finances|Season Review|Awards

I was very happy with my start, 3 wins in 4 games including a 3-0 vs Newcastle. We then went on a 7 game run without a win (including a 2-0 FA Cup 3rd rd loss vs Championship struggles Charlton - I did put out a very weak side here), we did draw 5 times in this run though which kept us away from the relegation battle that was going on 5-6 points below us. Wins over Sunderland, West Brom, Bournemouth and Swansea kept us above water and we were heading close to the top half of the table, which we scrapped into hitting my secret target i had set myself after taking the job (i also hoped we could get out of the negative goal difference but a 6-2 loss to Chelsea pretty much put an end to that little dream). The only transfers i brought in were Loanees Mikel from Chelsea and Pereira from Man Utd both did well as cover for Injuries mostly. Going into the Pre-Season i am already going to be fending off bids for James McCarthy (Arsenal, Spurs), Romelu Lakaku (PSG, Baryern Munich, Spurs), Ross Barkley (Spurs), John Stones (Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City) and Gerard Deulofeu (Real Madrid) - This could be a long Pre-Season.

Class of 2016' - Kingsmill may get a game if he can improve well enough but all in all a poor intake.

Facilities Downgraded! - With how poor the Youth Candidates were this year this is very bad news to me wanting my own 'Class of 92' (although i guess it's about a class of 22' i'll be wanting).

Injuries - This is what i (and Martinez before me) had to deal with, no wonder the great club struggled at times.

Then finally some good news, we can upgrade our Youth Facilities.

[brettney1980]

Great going US Arsenal to get third in your first full season (and maybe second full also...).

[ChefRobGaming]

finished 3rd again and won the europa league cup 2-1 over dortmund https://gyazo.com/cbc02ea8cf42ffaec3bddcf041433281

[NormandyWept]

Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge - Newcastle United - 2018/19

Transfers | Schedule Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 | Awards

I am finding Football Manager 2016 much more difficult than the 2015 game. Breaking through to become a proper top team, in genuine contention for European qualification and trophies, is taking much longer than I would have expected and an inconsistent Newcastle ended this campaign like the last one, down in 9th place in the Premier League. It's just not as good as I'd like us to be and I need to figure out how I can really take us forward in the next couple of seasons.

We were, however, bitterly unlucky in the FA Cup: again Manchester City were our conquerors, although we definitely deserved to go through to the 6th Round. Trailing 1-0 at home to City, we equalised through our goal of the season when Mitrovic blasted Hart's poor clearance back past him from fully 45 yards, and then took a late lead through Zapata only for City to score against the run of play in injury time to take the tie to a replay. We needn't have been daunted by another trip to the Eithad, however, as we absolutely dominated the game, but could score only once as Hart refused to make a second mistake after the miskick in the first game. The game went to penalties and City mercilessly scored all five of theirs to knock us out of the competition, effectively ending our season given our indifferent league form.

Next Season

A switch back to 4-1-4-1 did seem to give us some better results, although the 4-4-2 is the best way to get Cedric Bakambu firing it seems so will remain part of the repertoire. I think I also need to strengthen our first team more in the summer transfer window: I probably like my current team a bit too much, when I should be more like Fergie and mercilessly replace players.

This is much more of a slog than I expected it would be to get to the Champions League stage, but it is still enjoyable and I'm definitely being tested tactically in trying to work it out. Let's hope I can do that sooner rather than later.

Challenge Progress

Domestic

0/13 Premier League titles

0/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 Europa League wins*

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/1 World Club Championship

* - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy.

Seasons

Season    League    FA Cup    Lg Cup    Europe    CWC     Other & Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16     12        R4                                  Took over after 11 games, in 19th
2016/17      7        R4        R2
2017/18      9        R3        R2
2018/19      9        R5        R2

 

[ChefRobGaming]

in december of season 3 now and this happens https://gyazo.com/d33c49d9bdb6689868f4dd2048bea49c Barcelona are the current holders of the CL, I sit 3rd in the league as well

[KorbenRyan]

I've been playing this for a while but hadn't posted as the thread was dead when I started. I'm quite a way in (2022/2023) so I'll post a brief summary of each season to date and then I'll post seasonal ones as I finish them

So I holidayed until the 6th November and picked up a distinctly average West Brom side.

2015/16

Surprisingly our form picked up quite quickly and we remained in the no mans land of lower midtable for much of the season. I didn't strengthen in January to give the existing squad a chance. By late March we had an outside chance of European qualification but we fell away tamely to finish 12th. Knocked out of the FA cup in the 4th round by Nottingham Forest and already out of the League Cup before I arrived

2016/17

With an average starting 11 and very weak squad players a summer of strengthening was needed. Funds were tight so I sold the IMO over rated Saido Berahino to Spurs for £33.5m to fund the reinforcements. In came key signing Nathan Redmond (£8.5m), Denis Cheryshev (£9m) and Kyle Walker (£3.4m) with a few squad players alongside to strengthen our depth. The season was a vast improvement with Redmond the undoubted star. We had cup runs to the QF of the CoC (2-3 Newcastle) and SF of the FA cup(1-3 Chelsea) and finished a solid 9th without threatening to move far in the table all season

2017/18

Transfers were again about bulking out the squad, I somehow raised £17m selling off the deadwood and Lucas Romero (£8.25m), Tom Ince (£1.9m) and Luke Garbutt (£7.25m) came in. This was a real breakthrough season for us. We lost in the 3rd round of the CoC to Norwich, finished 7th in the League and brought home our first trophy after holding our nerve to beat Spurs in a shootout and win the FA cup

2018/19

Having been happy with my squad depth the previous year and with a £40m transfer kitty I went into the summer window with 2 aims, strengthen my central defence and pick up a regen or 2 to develop for the future. In came Frederico Venancio (£7.5m) and Stefan Medina (£8.5m) with 2 Danish regens Jens Harder(DC) and Jesper Schmidt (ST) who were to form the backbone of our future. No outgoings other than out of contract players leaving. Again this was to be a landmark season for the club, after being trounced 4-0 by Man City in the Community Shield a season of steady progress saw us finish 5th in the league, narrowly missing the top 4 by 2 points. We lost in the CoC QF to Arsenal and then the season really got going, in the FA Cup we drew PL opposition every round but managed to retain our trophy beating Liverpool 2-0 in a hugely one sided final, Jesper Schmidt coming off the bench to score both. Our first season in Europe was a huge success. We needed a last game win over Valencia to progress from the group and we never looked back, knocking out Inter, Sporting and Brugge setting up a final against Galatasaray. In the final we were 1 down with 15 mins to go before Schmidt again came off the bench to score, just as we looked to be heading to another shootout the talented RL West Brom youngster Tyler Roberts stole in at the back post for a last minute winner. Winning meant despite finishing 5th we were qualified for the CL next season for the first time

2019/20

Making our Champions League debut I expected a reasonable budget but the board only offered £12m, Man City came in with a £53m offer for Lucas Romero and I reluctantly decided to sacrifice him to invest in expanding the squad. In came Eric Dier(£9.5m) Julien De Sart (£9m) and in January we broke our incoming transfer record to sign James Ward-Prowse (£19.25m). The season started with the quick addition of 2 more albeit minor trophies, Community Shield (1-0 vs Arsenal) and Euro Super Cup (2-0 vs Chelsea). The strain of CL football took its toll on our young squad and we succumbed to 3rd round defeats in both domestic cups to lower league opposition. Our League form was inconsistent and the season was blighted by 2 separate runs of 8 league games without a win including our last 8 of the season. The CL was a reasonable campaign, we topped our group of Schalke, Monaco and Basel only to draw Barcelona in the first knockout round. We held them to a respectable 0-0 at the Hawthorns before being played off the park at the Nou Camp, being lucky to only go down 4-1. The CL exit seemed to end our season and our poor run at the end saw us slump to 8th leaving us without European football next year for the first time in 3 seasons

2020/21

With a squad designed to fight on multiple fronts I didn't bring many in this season, Phil Jones (£6.75m) and a regen wonderkid Pal Ramstad (£23.5m) the main signings with a couple of cheap prospects alongside. The season produced a lot more consistency, we at one stage went 22 games unbeaten and never went more than 3 without a win. The FA cup campaign was ended in the 5th Round by Man United, we broke our CoC duck beating Chelsea 3-1 in the final and the lack of European games saw our league form improve dramatically to finish 3rd and qualify for the CL once again

2021/22

The summer saw us splash the cash on Tomas Mondragon (regen wonderkid £31.5m smashing our incoming transfer record), Ruben Neves(£20.5m) and Andrew Robertson(£7.25m) bringing our spend to £59.25m another record broken. Phil Jones and Denis Cheryshev left and brought in a combined £14m. We fell at the first hurdle in our defence of the CoC but were once again succesfull in the FA Cup beating Arsenal on penalties to lift the trophy for the 3rd time in 5 seasons. Our league form suffered in the early stages as our return to the CL and a string of injuries hit us hard. We recovered well though to finish 4th in a tight finish between the teams 3rd-7th ensuring we were in the CL once again. In the CL itself we easily won a group of Celtic, Monaco and Atletico. The knockout draw was kinder this time giving us Ajax who we easily dispatched 4-1 on agg. The QF gave us Juventus, we lost the away leg 1-2 but again that man Schmidt scored a late winner at the Hawthorns to send us through on away goals. In the SF we lost the away leg to Chelsea 2-3 and try as we may we couldn't find a winner at home eventually going out 3-4 on agg. A gutting defeat so close to the final but quite fitting in the spirit of the challenge as something SAF experienced quite a few times.

Overall Nathan Redmond and Jesper Schmidt have been the standout players with Tyler Roberts and Jens Harder looking like they will join them as the backbone of my squad moving forward

That brings my progress up to date as I've just started 2022/23. So I'll post a few screenies and stop rambling lol

League Positions

Trophies

Nathan Redmond

Jesper Schmidt

Challenge Progress

Domestic

0/13 Premier League titles

1/10 Community Shield wins

3/5 FA Cup wins

1/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

1/1 Europa League wins*

1/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/1 World Club Championship

* - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy.

Seasons

Season      League      FA Cup      Lg Cup      Europe      CWC     Other & Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16     12th           R4           N/A         N/A                        Took over 19th
2016/17      9th           SF           QF          N/A        
2017/18      7th           Won          R3          N/A                        FA Cup Winners
2018/19      5th           Won          QF          EL Winners                 FA Cup and Europa Lg Winners
2019/20      8th           R3           R3          CL 1st KO                  Comm Shield and ESC Winners
2020/21      3rd           R5           Won         N/A                        CoC Winners
2021/22      4th           Won          R3          CL SF                      FA Cup Winners

[Joe.]

Good work.. I'm currently playing with Swansea in the first season, but although I'm pretty comfortable in the table I'm not really enjoying the save too much - hence my lack of recent updates.

Not sure whether to reload and try again or just relax with a different save for a little while.

[brettney1980]

Its interesting to read your progression over the last few seasons with West Brom KorbenRyan. Some great progress made already, long may it continue.

I myself am just coming towards the end of the first full season in charge of Everton, will probably be an update tomorrow morning...

[KorbenRyan]

I think the first couple of seasons are definitely a bit of a slog depending who you get. I think I'd have given up in season 2 out of midtable boredom with a squad I hadn't really shaped if it wasn't for my cup runs. By the time I was knocked out of those the season was almost done, Redmond was flying and there was enough promise to continue. I went into season 3 in two minds and things just took off from there.

A couple of examples of just how good Redmond has been

Golden Ball

Awards

[brettney1980]

SAF Challenge - Season 2 - 2016/17 - Everton;

"My greatest challenge is not what is happening right at this moment, my greatest challenge is knocking Liverpool right off their [insert swear word] perch. And you can print that." - Brettney Joven November 6th 2015

Season Preview!

The Squad||Transfers|League Table|League Graph|Finances|Season Review|Awards

I gave us an aim of making European football, i felt breaking into the top 4 would be tough but as long as we held onto our

bigger players (some of Lukaku, Deulofeu, Barkley, Stones and McCarthy) we would have a chance. But realisticly the Europa

League was more likely. We got through the Summer Transfer window only losing McCarthy, Stones and Funes Mori this left us

weak at CB with Jagielkas influence lessoning. I strengthened our Midfield mostly but after looking at him a couple of times and

even pulling out of a bid because i felt WBA wanted a little too much i finally signed Jonny Evans for some more experience in

defence.From his first minute in an Everton shirt Pione Sisto was amazing, her performed way above my expectations throughout the

season and was easily my signing of the year.

Lukaku and Deulofeu were unhappy after the Transfer window closed both having wanting to leave (to Arsenal and Real Madrid respectively)

but as Lukaku got injured towards the end of August and no serious bids came in for Deulofeu i managed to hang on to them without making

them too unhappy. We got off to a good start in the league losing only twice before Christmas to Arsenal and Southampton, we beat Champions

Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield which would of been enough to make my season but as we went beyond the January Window (still hanging on to Lukaku)

we started to dream, everyone around us were losing and we found ourselves at the top of the Premier league, at one point we were even

8 points clear, but then a run of 1 win in 5 games saw the lead cut to 3.

We were already gauranteed Champions League football before May!!!

7 points from our last 3 games (Aways vs Swansea and Aston Villa and Home vs Crystal Palace) would see us lift the Title for the first

time in 30 years... We won all three and even though Arsenal won their last 5 we were crowned 2016/17 Premier League Champions!!!

Lukaku wins Players' Young Player of the Year.

After winning Manager of the Month 3 times during the season i also won Manager of the Year.

Class of 2017' - 2 Players to keep an eye on.

Daniel Lewis and Jack Cooper. Plus it's always nice to get a Gibraltarian through... Ged Brown!

Challenge Progress

Domestic

1/13 Premier League titles

0/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 Europa League wins*

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/2 World Club Championship**

* - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy.

* - Ferguson actually won the one time only Intercontinental Trophy. I'll aim for a second World Club Championship.

Seasons;

Season      League      FA Cup      Lg Cup      Europe      CWC     Other & Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16     10th          R3          N/A         N/A              Took over 19th
2016/17     Top           R3          QF          N/A              Qual. Champ League

I have shamelessly stolen the Challenge Progress and Seasons charts....

[Joe.]

Impressive stuff for just season 2, well done! Now you have to maintain that....

[Sankalan]

Whoa, on FMC 2015, I vacationed till Christmas(because 6 november seems so ordinary) and I got:

Seems I will do this challenge then

[brettney1980]

SAF Challenge - Season 3 - 2017/18 - Everton;

"My greatest challenge is not what is happening right at this moment, my greatest challenge is knocking Liverpool right off their [insert swear word] perch. And you can print that." - Brettney Joven November 6th 2015

The Squad||Transfers|League Table|League Graph|Finances|Season Review|Awards

After a great season last year i was really looking forward to the Champions League draw, with that i was confident of second place and with wins over Sparta Prague (Home and Away) and Sporting we did just enough to grab second place and qualify for the next round. Previous to the Champions league we beat Arsenal to win the Community Shield. The League season started a little slow for us as i rotated alot before and after Champions League games, but we managed to stay within reach opf the top four which we got into and managed to once again be challenging for the title into the new year.

We once again went out at the 3rd round stage of the FA Cup, i played alot of youngsters and they just didn't cut it against League 2 Dagenham and Redbridge!!! Into the 1st K.O round of the Champions league and we draw Barcelona... My disapointment turns to pajnic when we lose 2-1 at Home and then a miracle happens... Somehow we win 4-3 at the Nou Camp and we go through to the Quarter Finals!!! The Spaniards keep on coming with us drawing Atletico Madrid in the Quarters and we manage to get by them with a 4-1 Aggregate win. Next up came Real Madrid to complete an HatTrick of Spanish sides in the Knockout rounds but they were a team too far and we lost 3-0 Away and could onloy manage a 3-3 Draw at Goodison Park. Although the Champions League dream was over we were still in the running for the Premier League Title and with Arsenal and Man City slipping up we ended up in the driving seat and were crowned Champions again!!!

Community Shield!

Final Champions League Group!

Game of the Season!

Stadium Expansion announced... And Youth Facilities.

Kingsley Coman wins Players' Young Player of the Year.

After winning Manager of the Month just the once this season, in November i also won Manager of the Year.

Class of 2017'

Alan Forrest - Report.

Challenge Progress

Domestic

2/13 Premier League titles

1/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 Europa League wins*

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/2 World Club Championship**

* - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy.

* - Ferguson actually won the one time only Intercontinental Trophy. I'll aim for a second World Club Championship.

Seasons;

Season      League      FA Cup      Lg Cup      Europe      CWC     Other & Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16     10th          R3          N/A         N/A              Took over 19th
2016/17     Top           R3          QF          N/A              Qual. Champ League
2017/18     Top           R3         4th rd      Semis             Won Community Shield

I have shamelessly stolen the Challenge Progress and Seasons charts....

[NormandyWept]

Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge - Newcastle United - 2019/20

Transfers | Details Part 1& Part 2

Big-name free agent signings Ramires and Filip Kostic were joined by big-money young English defenders Mason Holgate and (club record signing) Ben Chilwell as we looked to bolster the first team as I planned in my last update. The squad overall is relatively stable and we have a good set of youngsters out getting experience on loan, but I'll keep looking for opportunities to upgrade our first team where possible.

Season Performance | Competitions | Schedule Part 1 & Part 2

A fantastic season, as we were voted league overachievers after finishing in a brilliant 6th place - only denied 5th place on the final day when Tottenham scored two blatantly offside goals to come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with us and stop us leapfrogging them. Thankfully, perforamnces in the domestic cups from teams above us mean that 6th is good enough for the Europa League Playoff and with it my first European campaign.

The season of overachievement came in the nick of time: Mike Ashley finally sold up, replaced by a consortium headed by experienced football chairman Terry Robinson. With the team in great form as they took over, I was thankfully offered a new contract and therefore have managed to survive the takeover. The only mystifying thing about the new regime is that they felt the need to take a £48m loan on arrival, when the club has over £100m in the bank with more TV money due. However, it does seem they have ambitious plans to expand SJP and upgrade our facilities, so perhaps this explains it.

We lost only seven league games all season: away to most of the big teams in the league and our perennial bogey team Derby County. This is fantastic and if we can simply turn a chunk of the many draws into wins, we'll be in contention for the top four. I'm optimistic of that after we had a much stronger second half of the campaign than the first.

We got further than usual in the League Cup and looked to be having a superb FA Cup run too, but Man City and Chelsea put paid to our hopes. These games were evidence of a disturbing trend where we seem to be making a large number of individual mistakes in games against "big" teams. I'll be monitoring this closely to see if we need to sign some 'big-game' players to help our team through these games.

Next Season

As mentioned above, I'm hoping we can go one further and push for the top four, although we do have European competition to contend with so we'll have to see how the squad does: in theory I'm looking forward to more games for fringe and youth players, but we'll have to see how we can compete whilst doing this.

Challenge Progress

Domestic

0/13 Premier League titles

0/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

0/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 Europa League wins*

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/1 World Club Championship

* - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy.

Seasons

Season    League    FA Cup    Lg Cup    Europe    CWC     Other & Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16     12        R4                                  Took over after 11 games, in 19th
2016/17      7        R4        R2
2017/18      9        R3        R2
2018/19      9        R5        R2
2019/20      6        R5        R4

 

[brettney1980]

SAF Challenge - Season 4 - 2018/19 - Everton;

"My greatest challenge is not what is happening right at this moment, my greatest challenge is knocking Liverpool right off their [insert swear word] perch. And you can print that." - Brettney Joven November 6th 2015

The Squad||Transfers|League Table|League Graph|Finances|Season Review|Awards

After winning the Champions league for the past two seasons we may have fallen a little lapse, we drew waaaay too many game. 15 draws more than any other club cost us the League Title. Still has to be considered a good season though with less than 5 losses and we managed to finish 2nd after an exciting final day where the league looked like this...

Better news in the Domestic Cups this season as we finally managed a cup run (i played stronger sides) and actually managed to win the League Cup!!!

We felt quite pleased with this seasons Champions League group draw and could hope to get into the Knockout stages once again.

We managed to finish 2nd in the Group and draw Barcelona once again in the 1st Knockout Round, this time though there would be no miracle game and we lost 8-1 on agg.

Community Shield - Lost!

Final Champions League Group!

After winning the Players' Young Player of the Season last year, Kingsley Coman wins World Player of the Year!!! As well as the World Golden Ball! He's also breaking Club records!

And speaking of Records i broke the Transfer Record, beating the £28M we paid Chelsea for Romelu Lukaku by £3M paying Barcelona £31M for CB Niklas Süle.

Class of 2019'

Best of the Bunch... Dominic Leather - Profile - Report.

After 12 years at the club Phil Jagielka has decided to retire!

Challenge Progress

Domestic

2/13 Premier League titles

1/10 Community Shield wins

0/5 FA Cup wins

1/4 League Cup wins

Continental

0/2 Champions League wins

0/1 Europa League wins*

0/1 European Super Cup wins

Worldwide

0/2 World Club Championship**

* - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy.

* - Ferguson actually won the one time only Intercontinental Trophy. I'll aim for a second World Club Championship.

Seasons;

Season      League      FA Cup      Lg Cup      Europe      CWC     Other & Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015/16     10th          R3          N/A         N/A              Took over 19th
2016/17     Top           R3          QF          N/A              Qual. Champ League
2017/18     Top           R3         4th rd      Semis             Won Community Shield
2018/19     2nd           5th       Winners      1st KO rd         Broke Transfer Record.

I have shamelessly stolen the Challenge Progress and Seasons charts....